Using BlobDrive#
The main window#
Open it from the Start menu, or by clicking the BlobDrive icon in the notification area. It's laid out like the other AKC desktop tools:
- The header shows the status of all your drives on the right: Up to date, Syncing…, Paused, Sign-in needed or Problem syncing.
- Your drives are listed on the left, each with where it's stored and its status. + Add a drive is at the bottom.
- The selected drive is on the right: how much is on this PC against the cache size, how many files, anything waiting to upload, and when it last checked, with Open folder, Sync now and Free up space. Below are its settings; change them and choose Save changes.
Closing the window doesn't stop BlobDrive: like OneDrive, it carries on in the notification area. To stop it, File, Quit AKC BlobDrive.
Menus#
| Menu | |
|---|---|
| File | Add a drive (Ctrl+N), Open the drive's folder, Remove this drive, Close window (Esc), Quit |
| Tools | Sync now (F5), Pause syncing for 2, 8 or 24 hours or until you resume, Free up space on this PC, Check for updates, Settings, Open the logs folder |
| Help | User guide, What's new, Downloads, Report an issue, About |
The notification area#
The BlobDrive icon shows each drive's status when you hover over it, and you get one notification for each new problem. Right-click it for each drive's folder, Sync now and Free up space now, Pause syncing, Open AKC BlobDrive and Quit. When an update is ready it's offered there too.
Files on demand#
In File Explorer each file shows its state in the Status column:
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cloud | Online-only: listed, but takes no space. Opening it downloads it. |
| Green tick | On this PC. It may be freed when the cache is full. |
| Solid green tick | Always keep on this device: never freed. |
Right-click a file or folder for Always keep on this device or Free up space, as with OneDrive.
The cache#
Each drive keeps up to its cache size of downloaded files. Above that, the files you haven't opened for longest go back to online-only, a few at a time, until it's back under. Pinned files and files waiting to upload are never freed. Free up space frees everything that isn't pinned or waiting.
Windows Search and the thumbnail hosts aren't allowed to download files just because you browsed a folder, so looking through a folder of RAW files doesn't fill the cache.
Uploads#
New and changed files upload shortly after you save them, once they're closed. Deleting a file on your PC only removes it there: the cloud copy is never deleted in this version. Renaming or moving a file that came from the cloud also only changes it on this PC: in the cloud it keeps its original name, and later changes still upload to that. If a new file has the same name as one already in the cloud, it isn't uploaded (the log says so): rename it.
Settings#
Tools, Settings:
- Check for changes every so many minutes: how often each drive looks for new files in the cloud and trims the cache. Changes on your PC start a sync straight away.
- Start AKC BlobDrive when I sign in to Windows.
- Check downloads.andykemp.com for a newer version when it starts.
- Your files: where settings and logs are kept,
%LOCALAPPDATA%\AKC\BlobDrive.
Updates#
BlobDrive checks downloads.andykemp.com shortly after it starts and once a day. When there's a new version you get a notification; choose it (or Tools, Check for updates) to see what's new, then Update now, Later or Skip this version. The update is checked against its published SHA-256, installed, and BlobDrive starts again with your drives as they were.
Organisations that deploy updates themselves can turn this off: set ManagedUpdates = 1 (a DWORD) under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Andy Kemp Consulting\BlobDrive.
Removing a drive or uninstalling#
File, Remove this drive. Online-only files are removed from the folder (they're safe in the cloud), downloaded files stay as ordinary files, and the drive leaves File Explorer. Uninstalling (Windows Settings, Apps) does the same for every drive. Nothing in the cloud is touched.